1  ^  A  TT  r-t  f  j 

U -V,.>  -  /  U  ^        U : :t ,  j  u  •  x  o 

ta   Board  of  Forestry 


OREGON 
FOREST  FACTS 


BRIEF  REVIEW  OF  OREGON'S  TIMBER 

RESOURCES    AND    WHAT    STATE 

AND  PRIVATE  ACTIVITY  IN 

FOREST  PROTECTION 

HAS  ACCOM- 

PLISHED 


E  BOARD  OF  FORESTRY 
SALEM 


S 
s 


0) 

5 


9 

s 

I 

O 

O> 
g 

CD 

a 


m 

i« 
2I 

p<  p 
p    ^ 


-Forestry. 


•LJ  JDi 


The  facts  presented  below  aim  to  show  the 
part  Oregon's  timber  wealth  plays  in  our 
prosperity  now  and  to  come.  Timber,  next  to 
land  itself,  is  the  State's  greatest  resource. 
Needless  destruction  of  timber  through  fire 
diminishes  the  taxable  property  of  the  State 
and  each  year  increases  the  burden  of  taxation 
on  other  classes  of  property.  Forest  cover  is 
necessary  to  preserve  the  flow  of  our  streams 
for  irrigation  and  power  purposes,  to  furnish 
a  refuge  for  game,  and  to  prevent  the  erosion 
of  soil  in  mountainous  sections.  Already  bring- 
ing into  the  State  each  day  $70,000.00  of  outside 
money,  the  industry  bids  fair  to  increase  five 
fold  in  the  next  decade.  At  present  employing 
ten  times  as  many  men  as  any  other  manufac- 
turing industry,  there  is  room  for  increasing 
the  field  for  labor  ten  fold,  with  resulting 
increased  population  for  Oregon.  Any  timbered 
section  is  eventually  sure  of  railroads  and  a 
market  for  farm  crops;  but  the  permanence  of 
these  developments  depends  upon  safeguarding 
the  supply  of  raw  material.  To  accomplish  this 
State  aid  is  indispensable.  Law  enforcement, 
compulsory  elimination  of  fire  traps,  regulation 
of  fire  preventive  equipment  used  by  railroads 
traversing  timbered  sections,  and  regulation  of 
protection  work  under  the  provisions  of  the 
compulsory  law,  are  matters  the  State  alone  can 
effectively  handle.  To  compensate  the  State  for 
time  and  money  expended  to  this  end,  she 
retains  a  constantly  increasing  payroll,  a  great 
source  of  tax  revenue,  permanence  of  stream 
flow  for  irrigation  and  power  purposes,  an 
increasing  market  for  farm  crops,  machinery 
and  supplies,  and  the  bulk  of  this  benefit  is 

4G1854 


:  derived  •  f rent  \ands -'which  are  now  and  always 
will  be  unfit  for  agricultural  settlement  and 
development. 

Oregon  has  about  18,000,000  acres  of  mer- 
chantable timberland,  of  which  10,000,000  acres 
is  privately  owned,  while  the  remainder  is  in 
the  National  Forests  and  Indian  Reservations. 

Oregon  has  430,000,000,000  board  feet  of 
timber ;  an  amount  equal  to  one-sixth  of  the 
standing  timber  in  the  United  States,  or 
one-half  as  much  timber  as  is  found  in  the 
thirty-seven  states  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

To  transport  the  lumber  from  our  forests 
would  require:  340,000  trains  of  sixty  cars 
each;  or,  continuous  trains  reaching  seven  times 
around  the  earth,  or,  fifty-two  continuous 
trains  reaching  from  Portland,  Oregon,  to  New 
York  City. 

The  last  census  shows  50,000  people  engaged 
in  manufacturing  industries  in  Oregon,  of  whom 
24,500  or  fifty  per  cent  are  employed  in  the 
lumber  industry. 

Of  the  830,000  people  in  Oregon,  104,000,  or 
one-eighth  of  the  total  population,  are  directly 
dependent  upon  the  lumber  industry.  No  other 
manufacturing  industry  in  the  State  employs 
one-tenth  as  many  men  as  this  one. 

Even  though  the  lumber  industry  is  yet  at 
the  threshhold  of  development,  the  annual  value 
of  lumber  products  is  $30,200,000.00,  or  thirty- 
two  and  five-tenths  per  cent  of  the  total  value 
of  manufactured  products  in  the  State. 

Over  $70,000.00  of  outside  money  is  each  day 
brought  into  Oregon  by  the  lumber  industry. 
Eighty  per  cent  of  our  outgoing  freight  is 
lumber. 

The  last  census  shows  that  out  of  fifty- 
five  manufacturing  establishments  in  Oregon, 


employing  over  one  hundred  wage  earners, 
thirty-three  were  engaged  in  the  lumber 
industry. 

Oregon's  timber  pays  a  large  part  of  the  taxes 
of  the  State ;  in  some  counties  the  bulk  of  them. 

During  the  coming  thirty  years,  next  to  land 
itself,  the  lumber  industry  will  be  the  greatest 
factor  in  advancing  the  industrial  development 
of  the  State  and  in  creating  and  maintaining 
prosperity. 

Approximately  4,000,000  acres  of  Oregon 
timber,  comprising  160,000,000,000  board  feet 
more  than  one-third  of  the  present  stand,  has  so 
far  been  destroyed  by  fire.  This  timber,  if  stand- 
ing, would  be  worth  at  least  $240,000,000.00,  and 
would  pay  annual  tax  of  $2,000,000.00,  where 
now  practically  no  tax  revenue  is  derived. 

For  every  thousand  feet  of  timber  burned, 
the  owner  loses  the  value  of  the  stumpage, 
about  $2.00,  while  the  public  loses  about  $8.00, 
the  amount  that  would  have  been  expended  for 
labor  and  supplies  in  manufacturing  it  into 
lumber. 

Forest  Protection  Work  Conducted  by 
Timber  Owners  and  the  State 

The  present  Forestry  Board  was  created  in 
1911.  It  is  a  nonpolitical  board,  composed  of 
the  Governor,  head  of  the  Forest  School  at  the 
Oregon  Agricultural  College,  and  five  additional 
members,  each  representing  and  selected  by  one 
of  the  following  organizations:  Oregon  State 
Grange,  Oregon  Forest  Fire  Association,  Oregon 
Lumber  Manufacturers'  Association,  United 
States  Forest  Service,  Oregon  Woolgrowers' 
Association. 

Because  four  times  as  much  timber  has  been 
burned  as  has  been  manufactured  and  because 


the  loss  to  the  public  when  timber  is  burned  is 
greater  than  the  loss  to  the  timber  owners, 
the  board  considered  its  primary  duty  was  to 
reduce  the  heavy  annual  loss  from  forest  fires. 

The  results  obtained  are  shown  graphically 
in  the  diagram  on  page  two.  During  1908,  1909, 
and  1910,  the  average  fire  loss  was  $663,935.00, 
while  during  the  six  years  since  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  board,  the  annual  loss  was  only 
$16,250.00.  Thirty-nine  fortieths,  or  ninety-seven 
and  one-half  per  cent  of  the  annual  fire  loss  has 
been  eliminated  through  organized  systematic 
patrol  and  fire  fighting  work  backed  by 
effective  laws. 

For  the  past  six  years,  the  annual  cost  of 
forest  fire  protection  work  has  been  $119,245.00, 
of  which  the  State's  portion  was  less  than 
$30,000.00,  or  about  twenty-four  per  cent.  The 
State's  expenditures  simply  allowed  of  super- 
vising the  work  of  the  patrol  associations  and 
private  agencies,  enforcing  the  forestry  laws, 
and,  in  part,  looking  after  the  fire  hazards  in 
semiagricultural  districts  outside  of  the  main 
timber  belts. 

Under  the  Compulsory  Patrol  Law,  the  funds 
needed  for  patrol,  improvement  and  fire  sup- 
pression work,  in  the  timbered  districts,  are 
derived  from  assessments  on  timberlands. 

The  patrol  law  authorizes  the  State  Forester 
to  provide  patrol  for  timberlands  whose  owners 
fail  to  provide  the  same.  The  law  stipulates 
that  the  actual  cost  of  the  patrol  so  furnished 
is  to  be  charged  against  the  lands  on  the  county 
tax  rolls.  It  does  not  apply  to  holdings  whose 
owners  live  within  one  and  one-half  miles  of 
their  land. 

The  patrol  law  has  been  used  to  strengthen 
timber  owners'  cooperative  patrol  associations, 
and  to  stimulate  the  formation  of  new  associa- 

6 


tions  in  districts  where  none  existed.  There 
are  now  sixteen  cooperative  associations  having 
a  membership  representing  fifty-three  per  cent 
of  the  total  timbered  acreage  coming  under  the 
law.  The  Board  provides  patrol  at  the  actual 
cost  of  the  work  for  thirty-two  per  cent  of  the 
timberlands,  while  thirteen  per  cent  is  patrolled 
by  the  owners  thereof. 

About  three  hundred  patrolmen  and  lookout 
men,  paid  by  timber  owners'  funds,  are  employed 
each  summer.  These  men  perform  their  duties 
under  the  direction  of  twenty-six  head,  or 
district,  wardens  employed  by  the  State  or 
jointly  by  the  State  and  cooperative  patrol 
associations. 

The  protection  work,  however,  does  not  end 
with  merely  placing  paid  men  in  the  timbered 
districts.  During  the  past  six  years  a  campaign 
of  preparedness  has  been  waged  in  order  to 
make  their  work  more  effective.  Approximately 
4,696  miles  of  old  and  obstructed  trails  were 
made  passable,  1,145  miles  of  strategic  new 
trails  were  built,  514  miles  of  telephone  line 
constructed,  and  301  miles  repaired,  forty-two 
cabins  were  built  for  the  shelter  of  the  patrol- 
men arid  lookout  men  and  also  to  store  food 
supplies  and  equipment  for  the  use  of  fire 
fighting  crews.  Thirty  lookout  stations  were 
equipped  with  telephones. 

All  of  this  improvement  work,  which  was 
paid  by  the  timber  owners,  aggregated  an  expen- 
diture of  $60,000.00.  When  the  wardens  and 
patrolmen  were  not  making  these  improvements 
they  were  fighting  and  subduing  an  aggregate 
of  4,183  forest  fires. 

Only  twelve  per  cent  of  the  forest  fires  are 
caused  by  lightning,  while  eighty-eight  per  cent 
are  the  result  of  carelessness,  indifference  or 
maliciousness  on  the  part  of  campers,  hunters, 


I 


loggers  and  persons  starting  fires  in  slashings  j 
when  weather  conditions  are  unfavorable. 

Keeping  the  forests  green  until  they  can  be  j 
converted  into  lumber  and  keeping  fire  out  of,] 
the  immature  second  growth  timber  growing  on , 
nonagricultural  land  will  be  of  financial  benefit  j 
to  you  and  will  help  retain  and  improve  the  1 
scenic  beauties  of  our  State.  Your  cooperation  ] 
is  needed  to  reduce  the  per  cent  of  avoidable  \ 
fires  and  conserve  Oregon's  greatest  natural  \ 
resource. 


U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


461654 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


